Takht-i-Bahi
UNESCO World Heritage Site (1980) Buddhist Ruins Of Takht I Bahi And Neighbouring City Remains At Sahr I Bahlol · Mardan, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa
Takht-i-Bahi is a Buddhist monastery complex built on a rocky hilltop above the Peshawar valley from around the first century CE, and it is the most complete Buddhist monastery of the Gandhara civilisation to survive anywhere. Its position saved it: the hill kept it out of the way of the armies that flattened the monasteries on the plain, and after Buddhism faded from the region it was simply left. Visitors climb a steep path from the car park to reach a series of courts laid out along the ridge - the Court of Stupas crowded with votive stupas in their niches, the main stupa court, the monastery with its monks' cells around an open square, an assembly hall, and dark vaulted chambers underground thought to be for meditation. The views across the green Mardan plain are wide. An inscription from here names the Indo-Parthian king Gondophares. Most of the sculpture was taken to museums long ago, and the best is in Peshawar and Lahore. The site is a World Heritage Site with the town ruins of Sahr-i-Bahlol, a few kilometres away, and it is usually close to empty.
Takht-i-Bahi hill, near Takht Bhai town, Mardan District, Mardan, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan
Open daily in daylight hours, with a ticket and a higher foreigners' rate. The ruins are reached by a steep path of steps from the car park, about twenty to thirty minutes up. Takht-i-Bahi is about an hour and a half from Peshawar and two to three hours from Islamabad by road. Foreigners in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa may be asked to register or accept a police escort.